CUBED THE PUZZLE OF US ALL

Towards the end of Cubed, Ern? Rubik’s recent book about his curious creation, the Hungarian puzzle-maker mentions that there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible arrangements of the Cube. “Only one of these,” he notes, “is the starting state, with all six sides in their own uniform colors.”

For more than four decades, puzzle lovers have been unscrambling Rubik’s Cube and attempting to return it to that elusive original position. Just how many have tried? According to some estimates, as many as one out of seven people worldwide.

By any measure, Rubik’s Cube is iconic. People everywhere recognize it, even if they can’t solve it. Rubik himself